The present disclosure relates to computer systems, and, in particular, to methods, systems, and computer program products for predicting the future content of an information exchange having subject matter that changes over time.
Some textual documents, such as tickets in customer support systems, evolve over time. A document, such as a help request ticket, may comprise a sequence of messages exchanged between a customer and one or more support engineers. The complete sequence of these messages contains all of the information about the ticket, but they are typically generated sequentially over a period of time, which may range from a day to several months depending on the complexity of the issue to be solved. The first messages usually provide a general description of the problem. The content of the messages may, however, evolve throughout the chain of messages and delve into other topics of discussion related to the initial issue, concepts that may be relevant to addressing the issue, etc. Thus, a document, such as a trouble ticket may be routed to a particular subject matter expert based on the initial messages from a customer. But as more messages are exchanged, it may become clear that the original assignment of the document to a particular subject matter expert for resolution of a problem was in error because the classification of the subject matter describing the problem was incorrect.